Smilegate Investment Publishes 2023 Impact Report

by Kim Daehyun

Published 15 Feb.2024 11:04(KST)

Smilegate Investment announced on the 15th that it has published the '2023 Impact Report,' which summarizes the social value creation status of invested companies and annual investment activities from last year. Impact investing refers to investing in companies that seek to create positive effects on various social issues such as the environment and welfare while pursuing financial returns.

Smilegate Investment's '2023 Impact Report'

This report introduces investment cases applying Smilegate Investment's three principles for impact investing (▲free movement between classes ▲safety and health ▲sustainable growth) and impact creation areas according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). It also provides the status of sales, employment numbers, and main products of companies invested in over the past year through the 'IBK-Smilegate ESG Fund No.1,' established at the end of 2022, along with ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) evaluation scores for each company.

Key achievements from last year were also disclosed, including the excellent liquidation performance of the 'Anipang Future Content Investment Association,' established in 2014 with a scale of 30 billion KRW. This fund achieved an internal rate of return (IRR) of 21.1%, recording a total recovery amount of about four times the invested capital.

Approximately 300 billion KRW of new investment resources were also secured through blind funds, private equity funds (PEF), and global investment funds. Institutions such as the National Pension Service, Korea Development Bank, and Military Mutual Aid Association participated as investors, mainly in the blind funds formed by Smilegate Investment. Through this, Smilegate Investment's assets under management exceeded 1.4 trillion KRW.

A Smilegate Investment official stated, "Although the economic downturn continued, this year we plan to increase investment in startup companies to more than 150 billion KRW annually," adding, "We will accelerate efforts to discover future unicorns and create greater social impact."